


Daisy and the Dragon

by wheel_pen



Category: Original Work
Genre: Daisy (wheel_pen), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-30 12:08:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15096398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: Daisy, my original character, faces down a dragon at a conference of magicians. A brief scene, based on a dream I had.





	Daisy and the Dragon

**Author's Note:**

> Daisy is my original character; she first appeared in my Vampire Diaries stories but has popped up in other places, for her own mysterious reasons. I own nothing and appreciate the chance to share this original work, inspired by many sources.

Daisy’s main thought was to get upstairs, to the highest level of windows or balconies overlooking the central atrium. She knew better than to try an elevator; with all the commotion and destruction it might easily freeze in place, trapping her. A boring column of industrial stairs would have been useful at this point, and was probably required by the fire code, but if it existed it didn’t seem to be nearby; so instead Daisy ran around the floors, which periodically sprouted ornate carpeted stairs leading up to the next level. She kept glancing through the openings to the central atrium, gauging her progress.

In hindsight, a convention for witches and other magical beings was inevitably going to have something go wrong. Mostly they were small-time, local figures, though, who worked as herbalists in their neighborhoods or gave the occasional weather prediction. Not exactly high-value targets.

The motive didn’t really matter, though; that was for others to figure out later. A group of wraiths reached out to her as she ran past them, their long, sticky arms like willow canes threatening to entangle her as they moaned and howled. “Get outside,” she advised, dodging away. “Get everyone outside!”

She stopped at a balcony but realized she was still two stories short of her goal; the penthouse suite was across the atrium from her, its balcony offering a wonderful view of any entertainments held below. This was an elegant hotel, and sometimes they put on laser-light shows or concerts. Today the atrium had merely been host to the conference’s mid-afternoon coffee break, after Jessica Fletcher’s popular keynote address on using your minor witch powers to solve crimes.

Now it was in chaos, with people criss-crossing the floor running and screaming, and most notably, the giant dragon spitting fire and clawing at the architecture. A dragon that size did _not_ really fit comfortably even in the vast hotel atrium, but that was the point, wasn’t it?

Daisy kept running upwards, passed by people going in the opposite direction who had also discovered the hotel didn’t have a more direct way down. There were other leader-type figures attending the conference, such as Phil, the head of the Watchers security team, and Lady Iris Rose, the organizer who looked like Diana Rigg in her prime. Daisy had to trust that they were getting people out of the building, literally putting out fires, and calling in anyone else they thought could help. Really, there was only one way to fight a dragon, though. And that was with another dragon. If you happened to have one handy.

Finally Daisy burst into the enormous penthouse suite… to find some kind of child’s party in progress. Oh, right, this was the babysitting service for conference attendees, so they wouldn’t drag their children into the seminars and disturb everyone. The kids were older than Daisy had expected in that case, adeptly doing crafts and jumping on trampolines and stuffing themselves with cake. The soundproof glass doors to the balcony were shut and so were the curtains over them, and there didn’t seem to be any adults around, so the kids probably hadn’t realized anything was wrong.

This shoddy setup exasperated Daisy. She wasn’t especially fond of children personally, but she understood that society needed to care for them, and someone had clearly abdicated their responsibility here. Still, she couldn’t let her plan be delayed by rescuing them properly.

“What are you all doing here?!” she bellowed instead, gaining their attention. “You need to get out! There’s an emergency!” The children merely stared at her, this instruction too opaque for them.

Daisy walked over to the fire alarm on the wall and pulled, setting off a clanging noise that led the children to screaming and racing around in a panic. She grabbed several and pointed them out the door in the right direction, hoping the others would follow like sheep, and that someone might see them and help out. A rumble shook the whole building, reminding Daisy she didn’t have time for diversions, even important ones.

She unlocked and opened the doors to the balcony, letting the roars and crashes and shouts in clearly. She backed up to the middle of the room and carefully took off her shoes. Then she ran, putting on a burst of speed as she leaped off the balcony into the open space of the atrium.

The change was not painful or unsettling, akin to stretching muscles she hadn’t used in a while, more profound than pleasant. Her feet touched the ground as giant claws; her head bobbed back up, higher than she’d started, ducking to avoid the ceiling; her body ballooned, settling into the proper proportions of a huge, scale-covered dragon in deep purple. Her true form? She wasn’t even sure anymore. One of many.

Shocked silence momentarily followed her appearance. She knew Phil would have questions. But that was for later. Her dragon opponent, who was sleek and golden, actually perked up now, because he knew what to do when angry and faced with another dragon, which was to fight. Being trapped inside a building with tiny people throwing sticks and bullets and minor spells at him was merely confusing and annoying.

So they fought, huge claws and teeth trying to gash one another. Daisy attempted to avoid damage—to herself, to the other dragon, to the building. Now she could really see what was going on—this other dragon was under a spell, an enslavement, which she had suspected. Where was the evil wizard who had smuggled the dragon in as a miniature (which did not raise suspicion at the security screenings, not at a conference of magicians) and unleashed him on the crowd, the wizard who kept this noble creature in thrall? Phil and Lady Iris Rose would have to deal with him, or perhaps he had already fled like the coward he was, when he saw another dragon appear.

While parrying blows and trying to contain the destruction, Daisy worked on the golden dragon’s mind. Dragons were intelligent, sentient creatures with strong wills, hard to ensnare this way; but sometimes one was young and foolish, and a malicious wizard was cunning and well-prepared. Daisy pictured the dragon physically bound, chained down, and then severed his bonds cleanly with a white-hot blade in her mind, breaking the wizard’s hold on him.

The golden dragon staggered unsteadily; Daisy caught him before he fell. He would remember what had happened, what he’d done, but as though watching from a distance, unable to stop it. Perhaps he would feel bad about his actions—or perhaps not, dragons didn’t care much about humans and what happened to them. But he would be angry about being used—dragons did not like that at all, no indeed. And dragons were very good about seeking revenge.

“Where are you from?” Daisy asked him.

“Beautania,” he answered, picturing the sea thundering against caves in the cliffs below a broad green plain. In an instant Daisy sent him back there (the only practical way to remove a dragon from inside a relatively small building). He got his bearings on the rich green meadow, then soared high above the sea, the salt spray blasting his body clean, before he wheeled and flew into one of the sea caves, the opening dwarfing even him.

Meanwhile, there was now only one dragon inside the building, and though alarms still rang, the air was relatively still. Daisy knew everyone was staring at her, thinking they now understood her secret; but actually they understood only a little more than they had before. She would lift her chin and swallow back her retorts to their remarks, and go on about her enigmatic life.

Daisy’s claws snatched a red banner from the wall, draping it around her shoulders gracefully. Then she began to shrink, contracting inward in a precise sequence, so that she ended up safely on the ground, bent over one knee as if about to be knighted—or to pounce. The banner remained wrapped around her like a queen’s robes; she was not embarrassed to be naked under it (her clothes having been shredded when she transformed), but this way had a little more dignity.

She rose, the banner close about her, and walked carefully across the debris-strewn floor to a small ready room for speakers, and shut the door after herself. Someone—probably Phil—would think to bring her some clothes soon. And hopefully her shoes.


End file.
